(( Just letting y'all know, I had to update a few of my previous chapters, so sorry if I ended up spamming y'all's inboxes. Reason being is that as I was proofreading this chapter, I realized I'd written myself into a small plot contradiction, regarding the timing of events. It wasn't a big change, and I highly doubt it'd be something many people would notice, but it was there, so I fixed it.))

Alex unlocked the door to his apartment and stepped inside, giving an exhausted exhale.

"Hey, you're back. Where'd you get off to?"

Alex did a double take, looking to where the voice came from. His roommate, Isaac, was in the kitchen, mixing what looked to Alex like chocolate chip cookie dough in a bowl. Alex's eyes lit up the smallest amount. "I thought you had work today? Also, more importantly, you making cookies? Can I have some?" Alex asked maybe a little too eagerly.

Isaac let out a snicker at Alex wanting to indulge his sweet tooth. "Yes, they're for the both of us."

Alex gave his roommate a large toothy grin before stepping all the way inside the apartment and closing the door behind him.

Isaac chuckled and continued mixing. "And to answer your question, I did, but they didn't need me for very long, so I got off early. It's been pretty damn slow since that day. Kinda annoying, really. I figured I needed a pick-me-up after that, and I know you do too. Hence the cookies."

Alex gave a tired nod and flopped on his side onto the couch, letting his limbs fall limply and hang off the couch cushions. "Talk about an understatement... I just wanna laze around and do nothing for the rest of the day, after the week that I've had."

Silence hung through the air, save for the sounds of Isaac mixing the cookie dough until Alex's roommate spoke up again. "You went to go see him, didn't you?" he asked in a soft tone, knowing it was a sensitive subject.

Alex stared off into space for several moments before giving a sad sigh and sitting back up on the couch. "Yea, I did. And before you ask, he's still not good. At all."

Isaac gave a slow nod and began spooning out portions of dough on a baking sheet. "I'm sorry, hun. I don't know him personally, but I can tell he means a lot to you. Hell, I don't know how I'd take it if you were still in the hospital under a coma..."

Alex, still staring off into space, gave a small smirk. "You had to make it weird, didn't you?"

Isaac shot Alex a disproving look. "Alex-" he started off in an indignant tone.

Alex cut off Isaac's comment by letting out a groan and burying his face in the palms of his hands. "Uugghh, I know I know, I'm sorry," he groaned out in distress with his words slightly muffled by his hands, "This whole thing has just screwed with my head in ways I didn't think possible. I'm still trying to cope with everything that's been going on. But it feels like I can't get a day's rest without shit going sideways."

Isaac's expression softened. He finished spooning out the chunk of dough he had on his wooden spoon, then set the bowl down. "Why don't you go lay down, then?" he suggested, leaning his arms on the counter facing the living room, "I know you like to go out and be active in your off time- which is admirable, don't get me wrong- but I don't think it's a bad idea to just lay around and do nothing for a day. You can lay in bed, let your mind wander, play games, read, whatever. Just let your mind relax."

Alex digested Isaac's suggestion while his face was still buried in his palms. Then after a few moments of thinking, he lifted himself off the couch, let his arms fall down to his sides, and gave his roommate a nod. "You know what... I think I'm gonna do just that. Promise to come bug me when the cookies are ready?"

Isaac gave his roommate a smile and a nod back as Alex began making his way towards his room. "Yup, will do. Need anything before you do that, though? Maybe you could borrow a book or a game from my room or something?"

"I'll be fine, mom," Alex shot back, teasingly.

"Alex-" Isaac started in a slightly irritated tone before once again getting cut off.

"Only proving my point!" Alex called back, closing himself in his room before Isaac could respond.

Alex flopped backside-down onto his bed and gave a tired huff as he lazily splayed his limbs out. He idly stared at the ceiling as he began contemplating his situation again. Alex did some thinking about the situation of his identity being discovered by his friends during the drive home from the hospital, and had come to the conclusion that he wasn't yet ready to tell them. Simply put, Alex had been through a lot in the past month. Almost too much for one person to handle. He certainly was going to tell them himself when he was ready, but between his friend still in the hospital and having to deal with being a wanted man... or rather a wanted pokemon, among everything else that he had already gone through, he had far too much on his mind to worry about how his friends would take the news, and even more importantly, how simply them knowing what Alex was would put them in danger for being people who knew Mew's whereabouts. It would simply be too much to handle at once. Alex wasn't even sure if his reasoning was even logical, and that he was just making excuses to avoid the topic entirely. But no matter the reason, Alex felt like he needed time to sort out all of his issues, and it simply wasn't happening overnight.

'Thank goodness humans being immune to healing is not even close to being common knowledge yet,' Alex idly thought to himself, 'I mean it's one of those things where I'm pretty sure people are gonna want to test something like that asap, but I imagine with pokemon needing to first and foremost learn their healing techniques, I'd say I've got a couple months before I have to really start worrying about it.' Alex gave a calming breath. 'Yea, at the end of the day, I am on a timer... but I can manage this. I just... ugh,' Alex rubbed the temples of his head in exhaustion, 'I feel like I need to see a psychiatrist or something for all this bullshit. Too bad that could potentially mean telling them what I am, though.'

Alex dropped his arms to his sides again and once again began staring blankly at the ceiling. A sweet chocolaty smell began wafting into his room. Alex allowed himself a small smile for the brief distraction Isaac had provided him. 'You know, I suppose since there isn't any other urgent business for me to do right now, I do have a bit more time to research my species and just pokemon in general. It's gonna be interesting trying to sort fact from fiction, but now that I can go invisible, I can start training whenever I want. And... I think focusing on teleportation might be the way to go right now.' Alex nodded, committing himself to training more of his skills in the coming days.

Alex blinked again after finishing his train of thought, and realized that he had no real motivation to attain that goal at that particular moment in time, which slightly surprised him. 'Huh, maybe Isaac is right, though. I've been way too active as of late. Maybe a day of rest will do me good. Alright then, rest today, training and research tomorrow.' Alex's eyes drifted towards his desk, upon which sat a purple 3DS, which Alex knew still had his copy of Pokemon White inside. '...and I think I know the best way to take a load off.' Alex sluggishly got up from his bed for a brief moment to grab his 3DS, then promptly flopped back on it in the same position he was in before. He turned on his 3DS, and eagerly began continuing where he had left off in his Unova adventure. Despite everything that had happened in the past couple of months, Alex couldn't keep a smile off his face. His favorite series may have been thrust upon him in a very unwanted way, but it was still his favorite series for a reason. In that moment, any worries Alex may have had had all disappeared as he once again got lost in his own pokemon adventure.

Alex, breathing rapidly, once again checked to make sure his pokemon body was invisible. As was the case with every single one of the fifty some-odd checks he had made already, he was indeed still invisible. Satisfied that he was still undetectable, he took a breath and began focusing his psychic energy around his body. As the energy began to slowly envelop his body, he felt his concentration beginning to slip the slightest of amounts due to exhaustion. He was beginning to lose control of his technique. A brief jolt of panic shot through his body, but determined not to mess up again, he doubled down on his focus and practically forced the technique to work. Alex was able to recover his hold, and after a few seconds of intense concentration, he felt his body shift slightly, and his senses went dark for the briefest of moments before they returned to him.

Using that as the signal that it was okay to let go of his concentration, Alex let out another exhausted gasp. He was not ready to rest just yet, however. Alex took a moment to examine his surroundings. He was decidedly in a different spot than he was before. Alex then focused his attention at a singular spot in the distance, and spotted the telltale sign of his practicing ground: a very large tree branch that was clinging to the tree trunk by naught more than a couple of threads after Alex had deliberately snapped it halfway off. It was where Alex was floating right next to just mere seconds prior. Now, Alex estimated that he was more than fifty feet away from it, without him physically moving his body an inch. Alex, despite how tired he was, allowed himself a satisfied grin after successfully teleporting his furthest target distance yet. 'Alright, I think that's a good stopping point. I've been at this for... what, has to be two and a half hours now? Yea, maybe time to head back.' Once again confirming he was still invisible, Alex began slowly floating back towards his apartment complex.

It had been three days since Alex last committed himself to researching and training all of his abilities unique to his species. Most of that time was spent honing his teleportation and invisibility skills. Teleportation was a lot trickier to master than Alex thought. It required an immense amount of focus to make the technique work, and a greater level still to make sure he didn't teleport in an entirely random direction in an entirely random distance. It was incredibly unnerving to Alex to try and find his practicing spot again after the first time he lost control. It must've taken him a solid half hour, or at least close to it when it happened. Of course, Alex was training under a handicap to begin with, determined to never train again while he was visible to potential onlookers. At least until he managed to find a way to work around him potentially being seen. Alex imagined that under his strenuous training, he was already incredibly proficient at teleportation. But the heightened difficulty of using his techniques while under invisibility was making it difficult to tell. Nevertheless, he was getting better at it. And rapidly so.

Alex's breathing was slightly labored as he flew over the multiple streets and neighborhoods to get to his apartment complex. 'Sometimes I wonder if I'm pushing myself too hard,' Alex mused to himself as he took note of his exhausted state, even while in his pokemon form, 'but... eh, if I'm supposed to be a legendary pokemon, might as well train like one. If nothing else, it'll help me prepare for cases where I may need to defend myself.' Alex continued to distract himself from how tired he was with multiple similar pokemon-related musings until he realized he passed his apartment complex and had been flying aimlessly for about a minute. The second Alex realized he was in unfamiliar territory, he blinked, slowed himself to a stop while still floating high in the air, turned around to scan for his complex, and shot back towards it the moment he spotted it, cursing to himself as he went. 'Shit, guess I'm more tired than I thought. Maybe I should dial it back a bit... maybe.'

Alex floated to his usual cover spot and willed himself back to normal. As he slowly made his way back, he grabbed a water bottle from his pocket that he brought with him, and quickly began hungrily gulping down large swallows of water, only now realizing how tired he was. It felt similar to walking half a dozen miles. Alex walked up to the front door, quickly unlocked it, and stepped inside, letting the cold blast of air overtake his body. Alex shut the door behind him and gave a relieved sigh, moving over to the living room chair and flopping right into it, still letting out rapid breaths. He took another drink from his water bottle and glanced around the room. Isaac was nowhere to be seen, but Alex was certain he was home. He would always be home around this time in the evening, whether he had work or not. Alex gave a weak shrug, figuring he was just holed up in his room.

After resting long enough to recover most of his energy, Alex went into his room and booted up his computer. As his computer turned on, Alex pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked for any alerts. He idly glanced at the time. 8:19. Alex raised an eyebrow. 'Dang, later than I thought.' Alex unlocked his phone and tapped on the one notification he had. It was a text from Eli.

'hey im gonna try one of those nuzlock challenges you mentioned. pokemon x in case youre wondering. any advice?'

Alex chuckled. "Well at least he picked one of the easier games to nuzlocke," he muttered to himself in amusement. Alex tapped back a response. 'You should be fine for the most part. Just always account for crits. One of my favorite things to do is to go for a defensive typing core, like one steel pokemon, one fairy pokemon, and one dragon pokemon. If you can do that, it should be a lot easier for you.' Alex tapped 'send' and logged into his computer, which had just finished booting up.

Alex decided to first look at the University of Texas athletics website to sate a passing curiosity he had had for the past few days, but had been too busy to indulge in. Alex went to click on the tab for the football team's schedule, but it wasn't necessary. The highlighted article on the front page told him all he needed to know. Alex slunk back in his chair in irritation. "Aaahhh fffffuck. Season delayed a full four weeks, of fucking course it is." Alex groaned and shook his head. 'Ugh, I suppose it's hardly surprising though, given recent events. Man, that one day screwed up so much, I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up screwing up some college teams' practices.' Alex thought about the statement he just mentally made and sat forward in his chair again, typing on his keyboard once again. 'Actually, it very well could've. It was like, what, half past four when it happened? Maybe a bit later? Wouldn't be surprised if that was prime practice hour for some teams. And if that 'one in fifty' stat that one guy gave me was accurate, then just about every college football program should have one or two pokemon on their teams. I wonder if some of them transformed as they were practicing?'

Alex went to one of his favorite college football message boards and his eyes lit up as he almost immediately found what he was looking for. 'Wow, someone actually made a thread with a list of all known college football players that are also pokemon. That's uh...' Alex's surprised face turned into one of unease. '...not that college football players' lives are very private to begin with, but that seems a little invasive.' Alex internally debated the ethics of reading such an article, but curiosity ultimately got the better of him and he clicked the link. Alex was surprised as to how in depth the information was. It listed all of the division one football teams alphabetically with each transformed athlete under their respective school, along with a pokemon species, which Alex presumed was the one they turned into.

Alex pursed his lips and scrolled down to the University of Texas' tab. Two names were listed. One of which Alex recognized right away. Alex nearly gave a facedesk in exasperation. "Wooow, of course it had to be him. Cripes, I was looking forward to seeing him play after that insane year he had in his senior year of high school. Hope it doesn't affect his game too bad..." Alex blinked and fully digested the comment he just made. 'Course when I put it that way, it seems kinda shallow... obviously, I don't want their lives ruined or anything by this.' Alex continued scrolling through the list, looking at all the different pokemon that several different football players have turned into. 'I wonder if this makes me a bad person... I mean, it's not like I'm doing anything bad with this information, right? Most I'm doing is just sating some morbid curiosity-' "Wow, Purdue somehow has nine pokemon on their team? On an eighty-five man roster? Jesus, what are the odds of that?"

Alex marveled over the statistical anomaly for a moment longer before continuing scrolling down the list. Alex mindlessly read through a few more entries before he realized something about the pokemon species' some of the athletes had apparently turned into. "Hold on a sec..." Alex paused and squinted at his monitor to make sure he was reading the thread correctly. "What even are some of these? I don't recognize those names at all. Dreepy? Falinks? Clobbopus? What even are these-" Alex suddenly stopped himself as a thought occurred to him. He quickly opened a new tab and typed in one of the unknown pokemon's names into the search bar. 'I wonder...' Alex clicked on the first link that appeared in his search results and almost jumped off his chair in surprise. "Holy shit! Gamefreak actually released the information!" It was going to take some time to read it all, but by simply scanning just part of the web page, Alex could tell that it had information on all of the planned new pokemon and moves, including names, types, effects, and abilities.

Alex scrolled down to the section where the webpage listed all of the different moves. Conveniently, it was sorted by type. 'I have to know what that move was that I was healed with.' It turned out to be relatively easy to spot the move he was looking for, since it seemed to Alex that every other water move that was going to be introduced was a damage dealing move. "Life Dew, huh... so that's what that move was," Alex whispered to himself, feeling a slight excitement and satisfaction that a mystery that hung around in the back of his mind had finally been solved. Alex leaned forward to read the description of the move's effect. 'Restores the HP of the user and its allies by twenty-five percent... well not really sure how much of it is gonna translate over to real life, but I'm guessing it's going to have a slightly more muted healing effect than something like Heal Pulse.'

A thought came to Alex and he opened up another tab, looking for a specific link that showed images of all of the new pokemon and not just names. Eventually, Alex found one and he began flipping back and forth again between the pokemon images and the college football thread, once again going through the different teams to see who turned into what, using the other tab as a reference whenever he needed. Eventually, a single entry jumped out to Alex, making his eyes widen in shock. "A marshadow? From- No way. Nu uh, there's no way one of Alabama's players turned into a freaking marshadow. That has to be a mistake." Even as Alex voiced his disbelief out loud, he once again began to type furiously on his keyboard to double check the information he found. Sure enough, after clicking a link on one of Alabama's football websites, Alex promptly found an article confirming that one of their cornerbacks did indeed transform into a marshadow. Alex slunk back into his chair, throwing his hands up for a moment before letting them drop and hang limply off the arm rests. "Of course. Of course a legendary pokemon would play for Bama, of all teams. Because obviously their team being as dominant as they are, they obviously need a legendary on their team too. Because fuck you, that's why," Alex griped out loud, letting off an amused chuckle at the end of his rant.

Alex let out an exasperated groan and leaned forwards again to close the football tabs. "Alright, I think that's my cue to step away from that for now-" Alex paused briefly as another thought occurred to him. 'Wait a second... didn't Texas...?' Alex opened another tab and typed something into the search bar. He clicked on another link to the Texas football website. 'Let's see, no, no, not there- ah. Future schedules.' Alex clicked on the link and his eyes instantly lit up in interest. "Oh shit, that's right! Alabama is scheduled to play at Texas in a few years!" Alex brought a finger to his chin and pondered for a moment. 'I know it's still a long ways out, but I wonder if I should meet up with the marshadow guy somehow at some point? That other website did say the guy was a freshman, so he should still be around, assuming he doesn't go to the NFL early...'

Alex continued pondering the issue for a few more moments until he shook his head, forcing himself to abandon that line of thinking. 'Ah forget it. It's still way too far out to be making plans. I have time to come up with something, even if he declares early. For now, I think I just need to be researching everything that made its way to our world.' Alex closed all tabs on his browser that didn't have to do with the pokemon phenomenon and began typing up a storm. Alex opened up several tabs and began searching anything that came to his mind that he thought he should know about when it came to pokemon. Alex flipped back and forth between several tabs, but it didn't seem particularly helpful to him. Unfortunately, even though they were a few weeks into the pokemon phenomenon, there still wasn't any clear cut factual information on anything that had to do with real life. Only game mechanics and speculation.

Alex gave a tired, impatient sigh and a small head shake as he clicked through the multiple tabs and links that led him to nothing. He glanced over one link that had less to do with the rules of the pokemon transformations and more of why it happened in the first place. Alex's eyes lit up. He clicked the link almost immediately after he figured out what it was. After reading over the opening paragraph of the article, however, Alex's hope was dashed. He rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion and gave an audible groan. 'Are you kidding me? What the hell is the point in making a news piece basically stating 'we have no idea what happened'? Fucking clickbait in its saddest form...' Having his curiosity stirred, however, Alex continued to search for anyone or anything offering a cause for their predicament, making sure to disregard anyone that suggests 'divine intervention' as a reason. Regardless of Alex's feelings towards religion, he needed something more tactile. After several minutes of looking through article after article stating that everything leading up to the transformation itself being nothing out of the ordinary and that there was no unusual signal, energy, cosmic activity, or otherwise that could've triggered such a bizarre transformation, Alex gave up and clicked out of all tabs relating to a possible cause for the transformation.

'Nada. Not even so much as a solid theory regarding the explosion that supposedly brought all the pokemon items here,' Alex thought bitterly, letting out a defeated sigh, 'I don't know what I expected to find, honestly. I don't think anyone is going to be able to explain what happened. Not that it'd really help matters much, I suppose. We're like this now, so just gotta make the best of it.' Instead of looking for the cause of the event, Alex once again attempted to shift his attention to any effects it might've had. But just as before, there wasn't much he was able to find. It would seem that outside of the few rules regarding the transformations themselves that Alex had already figured out, there wasn't a lot of common knowledge. Alex wasn't terribly surprised about it, though. It was still very much a new development for mankind.

But then Alex happened upon a journal that, much to Alex's surprise and delight, was written by a handful of pokemon-humans listing different methods to train almost all the different elemental attacks. Alex sat up straight and brought a hand to the back of his head, staring at his computer monitor with his mouth agape. 'I... wow, that could make training so much easier.' Alex did a rapid scan through the journal-article and noted that it lacked information on dragon, bug, steel, rock, and ground types, but otherwise, it looked like a very solid summary on every other element Alex would eventually need. Not wanting to lose anything on the article, Alex highlighted all of the text on the webpage, copied it, and opened a blank notepad document on his computer, where he then pasted the entirety of the article on said notepad. 'I do not want to lose this,' Alex thought to himself, 'Even if some of the information ends up not being helpful, I'd rather have it on my computer in case something happens to it in the future.'

Alex saved the notepad onto his computer and bookmarked the journal on his browser before clicking out of it. Alex moved his cursor over to open another tab, but after pursing his lips and giving it a second thought, Alex just clicked out of the browser entirely. 'I think I've found what I need for now. Still gonna train my basic skills first, but that article I found is gonna be a godsend for when I'm ready for the next steps. Besides,' Alex continued reasoning in his mind as he stood up from his chair, stretching his body, 'I wasn't finding too much to begin with. Seems like people are still figuring shit out.' Alex wandered into the kitchen to grab a glass of water before returning to his room. 'I just hope people try and sus everything out as rationally as they can... hah,' Alex chuckled and shook his head, 'can't even think that with a straight face. Who am I kidding? It's gonna get figured out, but people are still going to lose their shit anyway.' Alex sat back down in his desk chair and took a sip of his water, gazing distantly towards the corner of his room in melancholy. 'I hope Eli is right. I hope everyone's reactions in person are a lot more muted than what I see on social media. I could use some relative peace after the couple weeks I've had.'

Alex heard a loud buzzing noise on the corner of his desk, directing his attention to it. His phone was vibrating. Someone was calling him. Alex chuckled and set his water glass down. 'Speak of the devil. I wonder if it's actually him.' Alex picked up his phone and glanced at the caller ID. It didn't display a name. Alex frowned. 'Huh, not Eli... and I don't recognize the number. Wrong number, maybe? Still...' Alex pressed the answer button and brought the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, am I speaking to Alex?" a male voice came from the other end.

Alex did a small double take, not expecting whoever was calling him to know him. The voice on the other end actually sounded familiar to Alex, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it right away. "Um... yes? Who is this?"

"Hey Alex, it's Andrew."

Alex made an 'oh' face. 'Ah, no wonder he sounded fam- wait, Andrew?' Alex's eyes widened and his heart skipped a beat. There were only a handful of reasons his manager would be calling him at this point in time. 'Oh fuck, well. This could either be good or very bad news. Ooohhh fuck.' Alex swallowed his nervousness away before responding. "Oh, hey Andrew! Sorry, I didn't have your number in my phone. What's up?"

"Heh, it's alright. Ran into that problem with Claire. But *ahem* anyway... I just wanted to speak to you for a moment regarding your employment."

Alex's heart skipped another couple of beats. 'Oh crap, that can't be good with how he worded that.' Alex took a silent calming breath. "Oh? What's going on?"

Alex heard what sounded like a pained sigh from the Andrew. "Well uh, there's no easy way to say this, so right to the point; our company is going to go out of business in short order, so that unfortunately means that your employment is going to be terminated as well."

Alex's heart fell. His grip on his cell phone grew weak. He slumped over and rested his elbows on his desk. Unable to keep the despair out of his voice any longer, he barely managed to murmur out a response to his now former employer. "Oh. Um... o-okay," he muttered, unable to say anything else for the moment.

"I know, it really sucks, and I'm so sorry it had to be this way. It was just a matter of a single uncontrollable event, but with that event shutting us down for so long plus the fact we already have too much competition in town, it was just unavoidable." Andrew paused and gave a sad exhale after hearing no response from Alex. "I know that probably just makes it worse. But if it helps, my former employer is handing out severance packages to anyone who had employment on that day. You were on the clock at the time, so you obviously qualify. It's not much, just north of a couple thousand dollars, but it should hopefully help while you look for new employment elsewhere."

Alex was jarred out of his stunned state at the mention of the severance package, and the full weight of him losing his job began to hit him. His eyes began to grow misty and his voice shook as he tried to maintain his composure. "Yea, that um... that- that helps a bunch. Thank you, Andrew," Alex muttered weakly.

"I'm really sorry, Alex. You have no idea how much I don't like this. In fact, you have my number now. You have my full permission to use me as a reference in your resume for any future job opportunities. It's the least I can do."

Alex gave a stiff nod on reflex. "Mm, thank you. When uh... when- err- how will the severance come in?" he muttered.

"You should receive an email about it in a week or so."

Alex gave another sharp inhale and a shaky exhale. "Okay. Thanks."

A brief silence before Andrew broke it using a gentle tone. "You gonna be okay, Alex?"

Alex clenched a fist for a second before going limp again, and slumping back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. "I um... I-I think I will be. I'm just... I need to digest all of this. Is all."

"I completely understand. Are there any questions, comments, or concerns you want to share with me? I know I'm throwing a lot at you right now."

'Aside from the obvious?' Alex thought bitterly. But he shook his head as tears began obscuring his vision slightly. "N-no. Nothing right now, no."

"Okay... well... I need to go for now. I still need to make a couple more calls and wrap things up in the warehouse before I leave for the last time too, but if there's anything at all I can do for you, just send me a message. Alright?"

Alex nodded weakly as his body began to tense up. "O-okay," he whispered, voice beginning to break.

"Alright... good luck and hang in there, Alex. Hopefully I'll see you around."

"Okay. Bye," Alex quickly managed out before hastily ending the call, himself.

With his entire body trembling, Alex slowly and carefully set his phone back onto his desk before standing up from his chair and walking over to his bed. Alex simply stood over his bed for a moment. Then with a burst of emotion, he began to let out his anger and despair by slamming his arm into his mattress several times. "GAH GOD GOD DAMN SHIT GOD FUCK!" Alex threw himself onto his mattress, buried his face into his pillow, and took in a deep breath before letting out the loudest yell into his pillow that he could manage. "FUUUUUUKH!"

After the sudden outburst, Alex simply lay face-down on his bed, breathing heavily. The full force of just how drastically his life had changed was starting to crash down on Alex again. He felt angry, scared, and above all, exhausted all over again. Any previous motivation Alex had to do anything productive was now shot. Alex took several deep breaths to try and calm his head. Tears continued to fall from his eyes, but he was too tired to even cry. He made no audible noises at all, save for his shaky breathing as he attempted to calm himself. 'Just when I come up with a plan... just when it seems things are gonna calm down for me... I just can't get a fucking break,' Alex thought dejectedly. He slowly sat back up and gave an empty stare through his tear stained eyes outside of his window. The beauty of the colorful sunset seemed to be insulting him. 'What do I even do right now...?'

Alex heard a soft knock on his door. "Alex? You okay, hun? Can I come in?" It was Isaac. He must have heard Alex's outburst.

"Yea... yea, it's fine. Come in," Alex muttered in a lifeless voice, just loud enough to be heard from outside. He barely spared a passing glance towards his bedroom door as it opened up, letting his roommate inside.

"You okay Alex?" Isaac asked in a concerned tone.

Alex simply shook his head, saying nothing.

"Do you... feel like talking about it?"

Alex started to shake his head again, briefly considered just keeping it to himself for now so he could get his thoughts in order, but he hesitated and thought it over. 'No, Isaac is my roommate. He needs to know this.' Alex took another shaky breath. "I just lost my job," he whimpered, voice breaking as he spoke.

Isaac let out a shocked gasp. "What? What happened? Did-" Isaac paused and his expression became one of understanding and empathy. "It was the pokemon transformation, wasn't it. It messed up the business big time." It was a statement rather than a question.

Alex nodded, instinctively curling up slightly by hugging his knees towards his body. "I've never been fired before... I mean, I know everything else that has been going on has thrown perspective out the window, but... still hurts," he muttered.

Isaac gave Alex a sad gaze and moved to sit down by him on his bedside. Isaac placed a hand on Alex's back in an attempt to comfort him. "Oh hun, I'm so sorry... the first time losing your job always sucks."

Isaac seemed like he wanted to continue his train of thought, but he was interrupted by Alex. "First time?" he asked in a despairing tone, giving Isaac a disbelieving look to accompany it.

Isaac gave a chuckle. "Yea, I wish I could tell you you'll never have that happen again, but the unfortunate truth is it's probably going to happen again at least once in your life. Even if you do everything right. Sometimes, shit just happens. But coming from someone who has been in the labor force since sixteen years old, you do get better at picking yourself up and getting right back in there when something bad happens. Hell, look at my mom. She still likes to tell people how she was fired ten times for various BS reasons- admittedly a couple of which was her fault though- and now she makes almost six figures in software development."

Alex raised an eyebrow at his roommate, completely forgetting about his lack of employment for a moment. "I don't think you've actually told me that story before. That's... actually kinda impressive."

"Heh, yea... she was never really one to sit around wallowing in her sorrow for too long. Not to say that it's a bad thing to take some time to yourself after something like that happens, because it's not. Everyone deals with these things differently. I'm just letting you know that even though it may seem like you've been put in a hole, it's one you can get out of."

Alex gave a slow nod, uncurling his body and wiping his misty eyes dry as he took Isaac's words in. Alex sat in silence for a few minutes, appreciative of his roommate's company, and simply stared out the window at the sunset in the distance. The scenery seemed to soothe him more than it had a couple of minutes prior. 'Yea... I guess he's right. At the end of the day, it was still an entry level job, and those are a dime a dozen. I can find another, given enough time. There's bound to be a few out there that pay as much, if not more. And it's not like it wasn't entirely unexpected, especially with Andrew straight up telling us it could happen. Still...' Alex let out a sad exhale. "It just sucks that it had to happen now of all times, when literally everything began going sideways," Alex muttered, voicing the remainder of his thoughts out loud.

Isaac pursed his lips and gave Alex a reassuring pat on the back. "Yea, I really don't blame you there. Seems like you've been getting a pretty bad end of the deal for someone who luckily wasn't directly affected on day one. But if it makes you feel any better, I might have a way to help with your now lack of employment."

Alex gave a side-eye look to his roommate, curious as to where this was leading. "What do you mean? You have something specific in mind?"

Isaac nodded and pulled away from Alex to fish his phone out of his pocket, typing on it with urgency. "Yea, I actually found a job request to the general public from the university a couple hours ago. Lemme see if I can find it again, but I think they said they were looking for people who knew a ton about all of the games and all the existing pokemon to help out in their research labs as assistants."

Alex's eyes grew wide at this news and sat up straighter than he had been. "Woah woah, hang on, they're looking for pokemon nerds to help them out?"

Isaac tapped on his phone's screen a couple more times before answering. "...ah hah, yup, here it is. The job offer applies to everyone. Student, faculty, or otherwise. They're looking for someone with a major in some sort of biology field, but it's not required. Anyone with a general understanding of the sciences are encouraged to apply- and get this. They're offering job positions starting at twenty dollars an hour."

Alex's jaw dropped. "Twenty- that's nearly double what I used to make!"

Isaac gave Alex a warm smile. "I thought it might interest you. Now um... I don't wanna get your hopes up. Austin is a huge city and all, and there's bound to be more than a handful of people who know a lot about pokemon too, some of which probably have graduated from UT with one of those majors that they're looking for, so there's no guarantee that you'd get the job."

Alex gave a nod, acknowledging his roommate's point. 'That's true. It might be one of those positions that's overrun with applications. Hell, even if it's not, I haven't studied anything biology related since high school, so I may get passed on, either way.' Alex pursed his lips and considered all of the different road blocks he could encounter while applying for the job. But in the end, Alex decided that it was at least work attempting. "Okay, so maybe I don't get the job. It still wouldn't hurt to at least apply, right? Worst that can happen is they say no."

Isaac nodded. "That's exactly right. I'd also suggest coming up with a backup plan in case plan A fails. Do you have anything in mind?"

Alex looked up to the ceiling, briefly considering his roommate's question, but nothing came to mind. "I'm drawing a blank right now, but eh, I'll come up with something," he said, giving a dismissive hand wave.

Isaac gave his roommate a slightly concerned look. "Okay... I mean, I don't want to add to your stresses or anything, but with my reduced hours, making rent might be a bit tougher, so don't dwell on it for too long."

"Oh that's not a problem. I have enough to cover expenses for the rest of the lease."

Isaac blinked, processing what Alex just told him, then raised an eyebrow in shock. "You have enough for seven months worth of rent still?"

Alex chuckled in amusement at his roommate's reaction. "Rent, food, utilities, all that good stuff. And then some."

Isaac simply stared at Alex for several moments before letting out a laugh and leaning against Alex's wall, visibly relaxing at the revelation of his roommate's monetary situation. "Man, I wish I had your saving habits. That pretty impressive, not gonna lie."

Alex gave a sheepish shrug. "I mean, outside of the pokemon games, I'm just not a huge spender, I guess."

Isaac let out a louder laugh at Alex's meekness. "Hey, don't be apologetic. That's a good trait to have, hun."

Alex looked away from his roommate, slightly embarrassed by the praise. "Yea yea. Anyway, the pokemon research position? How do I apply?"

Isaac was about to answer, but was interrupted by his phone buzzing in his hand. Isaac looked at his screen and made a surprised face? "Already? Wow, that was fast," Isaac muttered. He waved off Alex's curious look. "I'll tell you about it later," he quickly said in a dismissive tone in regards to the phone call, "In the meantime, I'll send you a link for the application site here in a couple minutes," Isaac said as he began backing out of Alex's room.

Alex took a calming breath and nodded. "Thank you so much for the help, man. I feel a lot better."

Isaac smiled at his roommate as he stepped out of the room. "Anytime, hun."

Once again alone in his room, Alex set on his bed, leaning his back against the bedroom wall, and took in all that had just taken place. In the span of just ten minutes, his life had taken another unfortunate turn, while almost just as quickly finding a potential solution to his problem. Alex shook his head and lightly bumped the back of his head against the wall in mild exasperation. 'Man, it's just been one thing after another, though... it's been nonstop, other than those first couple weeks after the first day.' Alex gave an irritated exhale through his nose. '...at least this one isn't too bad in comparison to the other shit that I've had to deal with. And there's a chance to fix it right away. Still, I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to deal with yet another life changing event for a little bit, universe. Thank you very much.'

Alex's phone buzzed on his desk once again. Alex shook his head in annoyance and sluggishly got up from his bed to pick up his phone. It was a text message this time. He unlocked his phone real quick to see it had been from Isaac. 'Ah, that must be for the application site.' Alex hovered a finger over the message to open it up, but after hesitating a couple of seconds, he instead locked his phone and set it back down. 'Nah, forget it. It's late in the day. I'm tired. It'll still be there tomorrow morning.'

Alex walked back over to his bed and hopped back onto it. He grabbed his 3DS from his bedside table and flipped it on. But even as Alex once again continued the pokemon game he had been playing through the past few days, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about the job opportunity that Isaac had told him about. A research assistant position for the entirety of pokemon-kind? The more Alex thought about it, the more interested and hopeful he became. It seemed like the perfect way to get all of the answers to questions about his situation. 'You know,' Alex thought to himself, 'if I can manage to get that job... things may not be so bad.' Alex eventually became lost in his game, but even before he reached that point, he had begun to smile once again.

((Hey, just letting you guys know, there may not be too much action in the next couple of chapters, even after this one. At least not in the way of battling, anyway. I'm gonna try and make things as readable as possible even given those constraints, but the next couple of chapters is mostly going to be world building and setting up plot points. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!

Also, as an aside, I've been thinking about doing twitch streaming sometime in the coming months for fun. We'll see though.))